Lawrenceville, NJ, 14 July
2015 - iTi Tropicals, Inc. (iTi), a leading supplier of industrial tropical
fruit ingredients, announces the availability of eight new prototype blends of coconut water with other juices. For beverage research and product development
scientists, iTi Tropicals is pleased to share samples by visiting
iTicoconutwater.com.

Both new and traditional blend flavors are offered
to demonstrate the broad capabilities of coconut ingredients, encourage research
and development, and initiate a creative dialog between product developers and
the iTi innovation team. The latest coconut prototypes include
Sweetened Coconut Water, Toasted Coconut Milk, two Coconut Water Vegetable
Blends, two tropical fruit blends, Coconut Water Acerola Blend and Coconut
Water Apple Passionfruit Blend, as well as Coconut Water Cranberry Blend and
Coconut Water Grape Blend. These shelf-stable prototypes are packaged
under HACCP and cGMPs at the Tetra Pak pilot facility located in Denton, Texas.

"Our
iTi innovation scientists stand ready to assist developers in the use of
tropical fruit ingredients," says Gert van Manen, president of iTi
Tropicals. "Our new Innovation Center is
offered as a resource to the industry in the quest for new and exciting
products using coconut water and other tropical fruit ingredients."

Today's
consumers demand 100 percent juice beverages that are healthy and
full-flavored. As many fruit juices are
comparatively high in fruit sugars, a key concern of many consumers is the
caloric load. Coconut water is
reconstituted at only 4.2° brix, so it is much lower in calories than apple,
pear, grape, pineapple, and other fruit juices.

The
proposed new label regulations would require that all fruit concentrates be
listed as ‘added sugar,' except in
the case of 100 percent juice products.
If the proposed label regulations are enacted, simple dilution will no
longer be as attractive for reducing calories.

As a result, retail
brand-holders are increasingly looking to coconut water as a means to reduce
calories while still delivering a 100 percent juice label claim.

Being
largely neutral in flavor and color, coconut water blends well with tropical,
non-tropical and vegetable juices alike.
The eight new coconut prototypes are designed to highlight how coconut
water enhances consumer health and label appeal of other juices and
vegetables. Each of the eight new blend
formulas is designed to be 100 percent juice, even though some have added
sugars.

The
prototype blends include:

Coconut Water Concord Grape Blend -
Using coconut water to reduce the relative high caloric content of grape juice,
the resulting prototype product provides the taste and impact of traditional
Concord grape juice, but with only 80 calories per 8-ounce serving.

Coconut Water Cranberry Blend -
The high acidity of cranberry juice needs to be sweetened to be palatable for
most consumers. This blend effectively
uses a combination of apple juice concentrate and coconut water concentrate to
complete a 100 percent juice product that has less acidity and fewer calories.

Sweetened Coconut Water from
Concentrate - Some popular coconut water brands are
sweetened by the addition of 1 percent fruit sugars. The featured prototype coconut water is
likewise sweetened with the addition of de-ionized apple concentrate. It shows how coconut water concentrate can be
used to make a delicious retail beverage.

Toasted Coconut Water -
Using a new and uniquely caramelized coconut water concentrate, iTi innovation
scientists have created a delicious and economical coconut milk beverage having
only 2 percent fat from coconut cream.

Coconut Water Green and Red Vegetable
Blends - Nutritious ingredients, such as alphonso mango
puree, spinach, red beet, passionfruit, blueberry, carrot, and apple
concentrates, are blended to make two separate green and red vegetable blends.
They are delicious blends that have proven popular with iTi employees.

Coconut Water Passionfruit and Acerola
Blends - These two blends feature the tropical fruits
passionfruit and acerola individually with coconut water. Like cranberry, both of these products are
high in acidity. To be palatable, they
require cane sugar or apple concentrate to increase the brix/acid ratio. The coconut water passionfruit blend uses
passionfruit essence to provide the full impact of passionfruit to a formula
that is only part passionfruit. The
acerola blend has high vitamin C that comes from the acerola.

"We
encourage developers to contact iTi for more information on these exciting
prototypes or to discuss other innovative approaches to beverage development,"
said Mr. van Manen. "Taste for yourself how coconut and other tropical products
add excitement and label appeal to new and traditional products alike."

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About iTi Tropicals

iTi
Tropicals Inc., a leader in the exotic tropical fruit product category, is an
independent company headquartered in Lawrenceville, N.J. Since 1988, iTi
Tropicals has grown to become a leading U.S. supplier of processed tropical
fruits. iTi maintains an extensive inventory of both frozen and
aseptically packed tropical and exotic fruit purees, juices, and concentrates.
Their sole business is importing high-quality tropical ingredients from
manufacturers worldwide who meet their quality standards. iTi products
include coconut water, coconut cream, banana, guava, papaya, mango,
passionfruit, açaí, acerola, mangosteen, tamarind, and dragon fruit.